Good Girls Don't

by Victoria Dahl

“Working.”

  His eyebrows rose. “In a mine?”

  She glared at him with enough heat that he felt singed. “I haven’t exactly had a normal life. I’ve been a small-business owner since I was fourteen. And in high school and college, I didn’t have time for a boyfriend. I had a house to take care of. A family.”

  Oh, shit. He’d stumbled into her parents’ death again, with all the grace of a raging elephant. “I’m sorry. You’re right.”

  “Well, I wasn’t raised in a foundling home or something. Don’t look at me like that.”

  “Sorry,” he said again, his gaze sliding to the floor.

  “Dating has been fine for me. I just didn’t have the emotional stamina for anything else, okay?”

  “Sure. I understand. But I want you to understand, too. I’ve never talked to anyone about my divorce, and I’m not going to start talking about it like this. I’m not going to be poked and prodded like I’m in therapy.”

  “I only asked a few questions! You’re over reacting.”

  “Probably,” he managed past his tight jaw. “Look, I’ve got to get back to work.”

  Tessa drew herself up in outrage. “Since when?”

  “Since I can’t stop stressing about work and I’m obviously not fit company tonight. I’m sorry. I’ll call you later.”

  She put her hands on her hips and glared at him.

  “I’m sorry,” he said again, not much of an apology to offer as he grabbed his coat and left.

  Tessa must not have thought it was much of an apology, either, because he heard her mutter, “Asshole,” just before the front door closed.

  He should go back. He should apologize. But Luke felt so guilty that his body didn’t seem to fit inside his skin. He rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck, then headed straight back to the station.

  How could he have been so insensitive about her love life? Of course she was closed off. She must’ve had a pretty ideal childhood until the day her parents had died. She’d been adrift afterward, surely…thrust into thinking about things other teenagers didn’t think about. Hell, when Luke had been fourteen, all he’d thought about was himself. And girls, but only when those girls had to do with him.

  He also felt bad that he’d lashed out about the divorce. She couldn’t know how hard the divorce had hit him. She couldn’t know that it had both broken his heart and shamed him to his bones. He could try to explain it to her, but then she’d be ashamed for him, too, wouldn’t she? How could she accept that he’d been so bad at being a husband that Eve would’ve rather died alone than stay married to him? He’d felt… Jesus, he’d felt desecrated by the time he’d left California. How could he let Tessa see that?

  But at the moment, his sharpest regret was having to lie to Tessa about Graham Kendall. He didn’t have anything solid yet. Just a fingerprint and a hunch. He could not tell the victim of a crime that an acquaintance might be responsible, not until he had proof. And he couldn’t blow up this deal without evidence.

  Thank God she had good instincts. That alleviated some of his guilt, at least. She was sharp as hell, and she’d figured the important parts out for herself.

  As Luke pulled into the station parking lot, he dialed Ben Jackson in Denver one last time. Ben hadn’t answered his phone all day, so Luke assumed he was off, but maybe he was pulling a night shift tonight. Or, like Luke, he could’ve come into the office to hide from personal trouble. It was a pretty common ploy among cops. Criminal investigations were problems that could be solved. Emotions were way more messy. It was so easy to tell yourself that solving a murder was more important than resolving an argument about the check book.

  The call went to voice mail, so Luke hung up. Maybe Ben had figured out how to have a good life outside the job. Luke hoped he was getting there, too. It was easier in Boulder, which had been his main goal in coming here. Being a cop in L.A. had been too brutal. It separated you from everyone else. It had certainly separated him from his wife. Then again, according to her, they’d never been very tightly connected.

  Christ, he had a headache, but he couldn’t blame that on his ex-wife. It was this damn case.

  Graham Kendall ran a private jet company for rich men. By all accounts, he was rich himself. In addition to being president of Kendall Flight, he was on the board of the Kendall Group. So why would he be orchestrating local break-ins?

  Determined to find out more about Graham Kendall, he called up the FBI’s national crime database for the third time that day. There wasn’t much on Kendall, but what did pop up was strange. A moving violation in Las Vegas, and another in Denver. Nothing unusual for a man who likely owned sports cars, but the fact that such minor infractions showed up on the national database…that made no sense. It was almost as if they’d once been associated with something else. An arrest. A warrant. Something that had been wiped from the system.

  His cell rang, and Luke hoped it would be Tessa, but Ben’s name shone on the screen. “Speak of the devil,” Luke said when he answered.

  “Sorry I missed you. I was interviewing a witness.”

  Luke bit back the impulse to ask if it was a big murder investigation. Tessa had invaded his brain. “I think I’ve got a lead on our robberies.”

  “Great!”

  “Have you ever heard of a guy named Graham Kendall?” Luke listened closely in case Ben knew something he wasn’t planning to reveal, but he sounded relaxed when he answered.

  “I don’t think so. You want me to check into something?”

  “Yeah. I want everything you’ve got on the guy.” Luke handed over every relevant detail he had on Graham Kendall, then settled in for a long wait. He was just opening Google when his phone rang again. “That was quick.”

  “I think you were expecting someone else,” his mom said.

  “Oh, hey, Mom. How are you?”

  She talked about her garden and her work as a part-time substitute. As usual, she brought up going back to work as a full-time teacher, and Luke did his best to talk her out of it. Then the conversation took a more significant turn. “So…how’s Tessa?”

  He had to smile at the way his mom said Tessa’s name as if she knew her. “Fine.”

  “Still seeing her?”

  “A little,” he said, glancing up at the ceiling to brace for a lightning strike.

  “Well, I’m sure she’s nice.”

  “Funny, you don’t know anything about her.”

  “I’d like to. What does she do?”

  “Let it go. If it gets serious, I’ll tell you more.”

  She gave a little sigh of displeasure. “I’m just curious.”

  “All right,” Luke muttered. “Fine. She owns her own business.”

  Her gasp sounded suspiciously happy.

  “Now,” he said quietly. “Why don’t you tell me why you’re suddenly so curious about my personal life?”

  “There’s nothing sudden about it.” Her voice turned high at the end of the sentence.

  He let his head fall back to the top of the chair. “Spill it, Mom.”

  “Spill what?”

  “When’s Eve getting married?”

  Utter silence met his question. He couldn’t even hear her breathe. That was all the answer he needed. “What do you mean?” she finally whispered.

  “She shows up to visit. She looks better than ever. You tell her I’m seeing someone just to be sure she knows I’m not still stuck on her. You’re suddenly invested in my personal life. She’s remarrying, right?”

  “She brought your ring back,” his mom said on a rush. “She said you wouldn’t take it when you moved out, but she couldn’t keep it any longer because… She met someone. They’re moving in together and…making plans.”

  Luke let all the air ease out of his lungs as his chest tightened. “I see.” He waited for the hot pain. For the betrayal. For the violent hurt she’d once caused him. The sense of failure. But the worst that he felt was a sort of irritated curiosity. Had she fallen for someone like Luke despite
her best intentions? Or had she found someone who could truly make her happy? To his surprise, he hoped it was the latter.

  “I’m okay,” he said to his mom, though he was speaking the words to himself, as well. “It’s fine. You don’t have to worry.”

  She drew a shaky breath. “I loved her. Maybe it wasn’t right to still love her after the divorce, but I did. But I hated what she did to you. Don’t ever doubt that.”

  “I know,” he said, but he wasn’t sure he had. Regardless, it was over now.

  “I’m glad it’s behind you, Luke. It’s been a long time.”

  It had been. They’d been divorced longer now than they’d been together. What a strange thought. No wonder the wounds had healed. “All right. Just so you don’t worry… Yes, I’m still seeing Tessa, but we’re taking things slow. It’s complicated.”

  “Taking things slow, huh? That’s sounds pretty serious.”

  He laughed as he said goodbye. It was serious. And scary as shit. But if it turned out bad, he was ready for that. If it turned out great… Well, maybe he was ready for that, too.

  Turning back to Google, he typed in “Graham Kendall” and tried to work through the thousands of hits. When he got to the fifteenth description of the same aeronautics event, he gave up and tried an image search. There were plenty of pictures of planes and airports, but there was a third type of image that stood out. Graham in Las Vegas. Graham surrounded by neon lights and scantily clad women. Graham gambling.

  Maybe it meant nothing. The guy was seemingly wealthy and only thirty-four years old. Vegas was a natural watering hole for a man like him. But it could just as easily become quicksand.

  Ben called back a few minutes later. “I don’t know,” he said.

  “You don’t know what?”

  “Something is rubbing me wrong about this one. His file is pretty thin, but there’s a note in here. Something about an interview, but there’s no record of an interview.”

  Bingo. “What did they want to talk to him about?”

  “No idea.”

  “I’m getting weird hits on the national database, too. You know the case files I was asking about yesterday? The ones with the holes in them?”

  “You think it’s related.”

  “I’ve got this guy’s fingerprints outside a robbery scene. His file’s incomplete, those robbery files are incomplete.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Will you give me the other detective’s name? The one whose partner moved to violent crimes?”

  “He’s a pain in the ass,” Ben warned. “A real battle-ax. I only call him as a last resort.”

  Luke smiled. “I’ll leave it till morning, then.” But come morning, he was going to nail Graham Kendall to the wall.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  LUKE STARED AT Graham Kendall through the tiny square of reinforced glass in the interview room door. The guy was cool as a cucumber, still neatly pressed and groomed in his expensive suit and silk tie. He didn’t look like a man who’d been interrogated by the police for two hours. He looked like an executive humoring his managers with a meeting. His lawyer was a little more tense, but Luke didn’t think that had anything to do with the situation. The guy looked like he had a stick up his ass 24/7.

  They weren’t getting anywhere with the questioning, so Simone was trying out her good-cop routine, even encouraging Graham to flirt with her. Graham was clearly a man used to manipulating women if he expected clear-eyed Simone to believe he’d be interested in a date with a significantly pregnant woman.

  What a slimeball.

  Luke reached distractedly for his phone and dialed Tessa’s number.

  “Hello, Detective,” she answered after only one ring.

  Her voice snuck through the phone like a seductive hand. “Hello, Tessa.”

  “Did you call to apologize?” she prompted.

  “I do apologize. I was preoccupied last night. And tense. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay,” she said easily.

  “But that’s not why I called. I need to see you and your brothers immediately. We’ve got a lead on the robbery, and I need to ask you a few more questions. Do you think you could get everyone together?”

  “Sure, everyone’s here right now. What kinds of—”

  “I’ll be there in five minutes.” He raised a hand to get Simone’s attention, then tilted his head toward the hallway. She was still rising when Luke opened the door. “Gentlemen, if you’ll excuse us. We’ve got an emergency, but we should be back in an hour.”

  “Detective Asher,” the attorney said, his words rigid with the knowledge that his client wasn’t yet under arrest. “You can’t expect my client to remain here all day. He has no knowledge of the robbery and you have no reason to suspect him—”

  “Aside from the print.”

  “There’s no proof he’s even been on Donovan property. He’s answered every question, and now he needs to get back to his work. If you could—”

  “We only need a few more—”

  “We’re leaving,” the attorney snapped. Graham Kendall’s mouth rose in a confident smile.

  “It’s one o’clock,” Luke interrupted. “How about if you take Mr. Kendall out for a nice lunch, then stop back in and see if we have any more questions.”

  “Nonsense.”

  “I’d hate to find that we had difficulty locating Mr. Kendall after lunch. We might be forced to call his associates, his employees, his clients, just to track him down.”

  Kendall’s smile stiffened.

  “Are you threatening my client, Detective?”

  “Of course not. I’m just worried about the time I’ll lose making phone calls if Mr. Kendall leaves Boulder before Detective Parker and I can finish this interview.”

  The attorney darted a look at his client. “Fine. We’ll be back in an hour. But this is the end of my client’s generosity. Much as he’d like to help, he has important duties as president of Kendall Flight. I’m sure you understand.”

  Luke followed Simone into the hallway. “We’re heading over to the brewery. Let’s find out what the Donovans know about this guy.”

  “That guy’s so slimy I feel like I need a shower,” Simone muttered. “You should’ve seen the way he leaned closer after he checked out my empty ring finger.”

  “What? Desperate single moms are hot.”

  “Bite me.”

  Luke smiled, but it was halfhearted. His gut churned with adrenaline. It was the normal excitement of getting so close to an answer that he could taste it, but that excitement was mixed with the anxiety of breaking this news to Tessa. But he’d been a cop a lot longer than he’d been her lover, and he owed it to this job to do it the right way.

  “You okay with this?” Simone asked.

  “I think so. I’ve got no choice, regardless.”

  “I could do it alone.”

  “That’d be worse, wouldn’t it?”

  She shrugged. “Probably.”

  “Let’s just get it over with. Hopefully they’ll tell us something that’ll trip him up.” Luke was hopeful, but not expectant. This case was too convoluted to allow for planning.

  As he and Simone headed for the door, their sergeant stepped out of the records room and nearly smack into Simone’s path. He stumbled back with an alarmed look at the stomach he’d almost rammed. “Excuse me.”

  Simone brushed past him.

  Once they were out of earshot, Luke leaned close to her ear. “You two still arguing about desk duty?”

  “Yes.”

  “Don’t you think he has a point?”

  “No. I’m pregnant, not disabled.”

  “But the baby—”

  “Luke, I swear to God…”

  He raised his hands and fell back. “All right. I got it.” But this time she didn’t give him the silent treatment. Not that she was ever chatty, but they talked over the interview with Kendall and agreed that neither believed a word he’d said. The man was behaving like any upstanding businessman b
rought in on a charge of robbery. What he didn’t know was that Luke had finally spoken to the other guy who’d worked the robbery cases in Denver. And he now knew just what had been cleared from the records.

  “I assume you want me to stand on the sidelines?” Simone asked as they pulled up to the brewery.

  “At first. But jump in if I miss anything.”

  “You think you’ll be distracted by an outraged girlfriend?”

  “Good possibility.” Luke didn’t bother correcting the girlfriend title. There was nothing dangerous in letting that stand when she might not even speak to him after today.

  One o’clock on a Tuesday apparently wasn’t a busy hour as there were no other cars in the parking lot. He’d almost been hoping for witnesses to keep the mayhem to a low level, but no such luck.

  As soon as Luke opened the door, Eric strode forward, wiping his hands on a towel. “You’ve got news?”

  “I do. Is everyone here?” Before Eric could answer the question, Tessa pushed through the swinging door and held it open for Jamie. Jamie lugged a keg through the door and set it behind the bar. Tessa met Luke’s eyes with a smile. Last night’s argument seemed to have been forgotten. Luke would’ve felt relieved if he hadn’t been facing this next few minutes.

  “Why don’t we all sit down?” he suggested. Only Tessa’s face registered the correct amount of wariness at his words. She lowered herself slowly to a chair and placed her hands flat on the table.

  Luke folded his hands in front of him. “We picked up someone this weekend who was involved in the break-in.”

  “Involved?” Eric asked. “How?”

  “He walked in, took the computers and the keg and walked out.”

  “Walked in?” Eric snapped. He shot an ice-cold look at Jamie. “What do you mean, he just walked in?”

  Luke held up a hand. “Someone contracted him. Told him not to worry about the door or the alarm.”

  “I locked that fucking door,” Jamie growled. “I set the alarm.”

  Tessa touched his hand to calm him down. “Who contracted the thief?” she asked. Ah. Here was the sticking point.

  “The guy got an anonymous phone call. If he did the job, he could keep anything else he wanted. The caller just wanted the computers.”